Local rivals, competitive rivals and then there's the club you hate the most and for me as a Chelsea fan it's Leeds.
Fans of PL clubs vote for their biggest rivals
- Thread starter Sara125
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A lot of old farts like me don't bother with social media so it's difficult to say how representative the survey actually is. Big clubs like Liverpool & United have a massive worldwide fanbase, most of whom have probably never been to Britain let alone Anfield or Old Trafford, so they just view rivalry on a competitive basis. Throughout my lifetime we've had competitive rivalry with the likes of Leeds United, Nottingham Forest, Everton, & Arsenal. But if you were to ask me spread out my 100% quota on teams I saw as 'bitter' rivals, then I'd say 80% Everton - because I'm a Scouser & a Liverpool supporter - The remaining 20% would be Manchester United - based on the historic rivalry of both cities, both in football, & in commerce.
Why Leeds ?
Some surprising things that I have noticed:
In contrast alongside the fact City have been the main challengers to their recent rise, lets not forget the amount of bad blood that has taken place between Liverpool & Chelsea since the Mourinho era.
- Both Brighton & Palace seem to put ourselves as their 5th biggest rivals (I suspect those FA Cup Finals have played their part)
- They seemingly forgot to ask Chelsea & Watford fans (I would imagine that Arsenal are their biggest rivals these days alongside usual suspects Luton).
- West Ham United fans see Tottenham as their bigger rival than Millwall (A club that seemingly has a rivalry with literally everyone else).
- Everton considering Newcastle their 5th biggest rivals and Chelsea as bigger rival than Man City.
- Leicester considering Tottenham as their 5th biggest rival (legacy of the 2015-2016 title race perhaps?).
- Man City fans considering Tottenham as their 3rd biggest rivals (Clearly a legacy of their most recent encounters).
- Newcastle United considering Aston Villa as their 5th biggest rivals.
- Norwich City considering Middlesbrough as their 5th biggest rivals.
- Southampton considering Tottenham as their 5th biggest rivals (a legacy of the number of players and even managers that the latter have taken from the former, which is almost as bad as Liverpools record on this area)
To be fair with the way things are going, that rivalry will likely end up as this era version of the United-Arsenal rivalry during the 90s/00s. Especially when they have clearly taken the batton off us as the main Manchester based challenger (Thanks to the Glazer's stupidity) to Liverpool's attempts to get back to their glory days.
That might be due to the number of Liverpool fans (especially those from Merseyside) who have Everton supporting relatives/loved ones, which also explains how the rivalry between the two clubs is less hostile than it should be (As shown by the number of childhood Everton and childhood Liverpool supporters that ended up playing for the other club without any fuss).
In contrast alongside the fact City have been the main challengers to their recent rise, lets not forget the amount of bad blood that has taken place between Liverpool & Chelsea since the Mourinho era.
They are still Scousers at the end of the day, so the overall Liverpool-Manchester rivalry is going to play a part in how they see us. In fact I am surprised there isn't a bigger rivalry (from our perspective) between ourselves and Everton, especially when you look at the number of players that have played for both clubs.
Tottenham's rivalry with Chelsea (Coupled with Arsenal's decline in recent years relative to Chelsea) and Arsenals rivalry with ourselves (which at its height took place at a time* when Tottenham where a Mid-Table side at best has played a part in that.
Well it has been over 15 years since Leeds last played in the PL* (moreso when it came to being in a position to actually challenge ourselves), during which Chelsea have spent all that time building themselves up as a main club that challenged our dominance over English Football (until Fergie left of course). One might they even filled the gap that Leeds left behind.
For me the ironic thing about that particular incident is that Rocastle was one of the few Arsenal players that I have respect for as both a person and a player. Certainly the current lot at the Emirates could do with more players like him...
City voting Liverpool as their biggest rival shows how new this is. Guaranteed that if this pole was taken just a couple of years ago we would be an overwheling #1 rivalry. It's almost insulting that they would pick Liverpool. It's like they voted that way inspite of United...
Poor Bournemouth. They must be the only club in the world that doesn’t have a proper derby.
City voted big 6 Clubs as their rivals.
Why do people even care about those 4th/5th choices? They have to choose someone.
I think a lot of this goes back 30 years or more when both Villa & Everton were classed as the big six with us, Liverpool, Arsenal & Spurs. City & Chelsea were minor players.
This vote is a pretty clear indication what age demographic actually voted. The ones who did are too young to vividly remember hating x team instead of the fresh oilmoney club.
They just asked pre teens, explains the results.
Wow, just goes to show how Bitter City are fans are. Pretending that we are not there rivals by voting Liverpool. Must be the only club in that list to do that.
40 odd years of crap before the sugar daddy has changed there mentality and even now still harbours a deep unmovable inferiority complex.
40 odd years of crap before the sugar daddy has changed there mentality and even now still harbours a deep unmovable inferiority complex.
Obviously not been footballing rivals for years, but the team I hate most is Leeds by some way. Growing up in York every 2nd person is leeds. The towns around are even worse. Was a nightmare as a 16 year old when they won the league in 92. Felt like i was in enemy territory. Also the amount of times pre smartphone i was asked when out, if i knew the score. I knew who they meant but always said the York city score and the United score, just for the reaction..... unless there were quite a few of them.
Never knew West Ham hated Spurs so much. I'd have thought Millwall and Chelsea would be 1 and 2 for them, not necessarily in that order.
1) The percentage of fans who said x club was their rival
2) The percentage of fans who thought x club was their clubs biggest, 2nd biggest, 3rd biggest rival etc. and they listed the most common choice for each spot
Looking at the data it's probably option 1 as the percentage goes down at each spot for each club. If it was the 2nd it could in theory leap around a bit if for example there was more consensus over who a club's 4th biggest rival than who was their 2nd or 3rd.
You might even throw in a bit of Rooney into the mix, there was some bad blood between the 2 sets of fans around that time and I assume his transfer was the catalyst.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/2355603/Everton-face-inquiry-over-coin-attack.html
Think Wayne also got some abuse on the pitch off one of your match day sponsors when he went back for the first time.
I suppose we've been involved in some of your biggest matches in recent history too at least in the FA Cup. You beat us in the semi 2009 and also in the final the last time you won anything, didn't you? Might play a tiny role.
Could be 2 things:
1) The percentage of fans who said x club was their rival
2) The percentage of fans who thought x club was their clubs biggest, 2nd biggest, 3rd biggest rival etc. and they listed the most common choice for each spot
Looking at the data it's probably option 1 as the percentage goes down at each spot for each club. If it was the 2nd it could in theory leap around a bit if for example there was more consensus over who a club's 4th biggest rival than who was their 2nd or 3rd.
Yeah, you only list us as weak 2nd rival, plus as @Classical Mechanic points out there's a historic rivalry between the 2 cities in general.
You might even throw in a bit of Rooney into the mix, there was some bad blood between the 2 sets of fans around that time and I assume his transfer was the catalyst.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/2355603/Everton-face-inquiry-over-coin-attack.html
Think Wayne also got some abuse on the pitch off one of your match day sponsors when he went back for the first time.
I suppose we've been involved in some of your biggest matches in recent history too at least in the FA Cup. You beat us in the semi 2009 and also in the final the last time you won anything, didn't you? Might play a tiny role.
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Man City's rivals are all the rest of the Top 6. It's like the club was invented in the last 10 years.
Could be the other way around, a United fan being bitter City fans don't vote United as their #1 rival.
It's not that far away, about 45 miles. However it's more about this - https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...g/2011/sep/27/brighton-crystal-palace-rivalry
Plus I suppose they've played each other a decent amount of times since then.
For United being theirs?
It will be mostly because of Paul Nixon, a fan of theirs who died during a bit of a skirmish ahead of the 1995 FA Cup semi final at Villa Park. It kicked off at a pub in Walsall, and from what I remember United fans jumped on their coach or minibus and while driving away from it Nixon was run over and died. I had a schoolmate's dad who was caught up in it. His son said he'd vowed never to go to another match away from Old Trafford after that.
There's the Cantona kung fu kick too the same season Nixon died although I think a lot of Palace fans believe their lad deserved Eric's kick as it turned out he was an unsavoury character all round. Beat them in the 1990 FA Cup final as well of course.
Edit: Never knew Nixon had also been stabbed and hit by a brick - http://tdifh.blogspot.com/2009/04/9-april-1995-dark-day-in-fa-cup.html
Yet another edit: Palace fans saying it was a minibus of their fans that actually ran him over, trying to escape from it all. United fans obviously played a big part in his death though - https://www.cpfc.org/forums/showthread.php?t=250755
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G
Goes back long before United “came good”. Ie before we came good in 68 when we had a little sequence of taking turns winning the title under Busby and Shankly, for example when hoolies were in full swing. Even then, it was City, Leeds and Liverpool, probably in that order, with Everton close behind, also winning titles and cups. I’m sure back then Everton we’re tops for you just as City were for us. Probably varies in intensity according to success of rival at the time.
I'm always amused by West Ham fans thinking we're their biggest rivals.
They're almost an irrelevance to us tbh, Arse and Chelsea are way ahead in that regard.
Still, they'll likely back in the championship soon enough to play against their real rivals
They're almost an irrelevance to us tbh, Arse and Chelsea are way ahead in that regard.
Still, they'll likely back in the championship soon enough to play against their real rivals
Funny thing I noticed is, that only we (as 2nd) and Liverpool (as 3rd) see City as rivals. No one really seems to care about them
Edit: and Everton has them as 4th? Why that? That seems pretty strange
Edit: and Everton has them as 4th? Why that? That seems pretty strange
Pretty shallow view of rivalry from them.
Looking at those percentages it seems Saints, poopsmuff is the biggest rivalry with an aggregate of 91%.
Probably not thought about around the country as we don't play them often. Shame we don't, though I'm sure the Hampshire Constabulary may think otherwise!
Probably not thought about around the country as we don't play them often. Shame we don't, though I'm sure the Hampshire Constabulary may think otherwise!
Only 87% of our fans consider Spurs our biggest rival? Weird.
Liverpool 1st, City 2nd and Chelsea 3rd for us makes sense. Though I'd have Arsenal 4th instead of Leeds and Everton 5th.
Namely West Ham. Spurs, Chelsea, United and Liverpool? They were 10th last year. They may as well have said "Barcelona, New England Patriots, Lewis Hamilton and Gary Kasparov".
Well.. even fergie back in the day projected liverpool as the clubs biggest rival instead of citeh. But that because we were hugely more successful than citeh. It was done to set an ambitious state of mind to go for the biggest shark in the sea. But i think many voted immidiate threats and tbf we never really challenged citeh past few seasons but liverpool keep pushing them.. So..